Today we’d like to introduce you to Shelley Loving.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My life jump started when I became a mother at 17. Determined to make it work, I opened my first retail business in 1998. It was a scrapbook store in McKinney called Scrap This! As a young mom of two toddlers, I also worked 60+ hours a week to keep the store successfully running. Three years later, I sold it to my longtime employee. Fast forward to 2014 where my husband and I opened one of the first electronic cigarette retails stores, in DFW, Royal Vapor, where we successfully ran it for 18 months. At that time, at the age of 41, my husband had a massive heart attack and that changed everything. The stress of owning multiple businesses was just too much so we hired a business broker and sold Royal Vapor. Soon after that, we sold our home, sold most of our belongings, bought a new RV and took off.
We traveled all the beaches in Florida for ten months; starting in Destin, working our way down to the keys, and ending up in Jupiter. Getting away from the only life I had known was needed more than I knew. I had no idea how disconnected with myself I really was. Moving away, and doing nothing for ten months was the perfect time for me to reconnect with myself; learn who I really was and what I really wanted in life. When I returned to Dallas, I enrolled online with The Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN). Since my husband’s heart attack, I knew the importance of food and how keeping our diets healthy was vital. When I graduated, I wasn’t too clear on what I wanted to do with my certification. I only knew I wanted it to involve food. So I took my passion for the kitchen and married that with my education with food and in 2018 I created Shelley Can Help.
My focus as an integrative nutrition health coach is to help people get back to the basics of food and the power it truly has on our health and longevity. I believe food can heal and I also believe the bad foods can kill. My mission is teach and inspire as many people as possible the importance of eating real whole foods. I believe it is my duty to cause a ripple effect on conscious, healthy eating. We need to get back in our kitchens & take back our health; the holistic way.
Has it been a smooth road?
Life itself is never a smooth road. My rough patches and challenges are exactly what I needed to be where I am today. Working hard comes natural for me. Smooth? No. But worth it, yes! I don’t have a corporation backing me or paying my salary. I don’t have a direct sales marketing company telling me what to sell, and how to sell it. I have me. I have my perseverance and the support of my family. It is solely up to me to be successful. But I believe if you do what you love, the business will follow. Energy is contagious. Making the right connections and staying true to who I am is what makes it “smooth”.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Shelley Can Help story. Tell us more about the business.
My business is Shelley Can Help. I named it that because I want people to remember me and my business for what it is. I help people make positive changes in the foods they eat. I help people one-on-one with whatever healthy issues they are having; all through food. Whether it’s weight loss, managing a chronic health condition, or just wanting to up their healthy game. I create a personalized plan just for them. I do not sell “diets”. I teach lifestyle habits through food. My favorite thing is my private kitchen classes. I get in my clients’ kitchens with them, 1-on-1, and get my hands dirty alongside them; in their OWN kitchen. I teach them new kitchen skills. People love it because this is hands-on and it’s in their own environment. When my clients create their own delicious AND healthy foods, it leaves them so inspired.
It’s a little nugget of hope when it comes to changing their diets. I also partner with my friend, Holly, to do some group kitchen demos in downtown McKinney @ Kitchenwares on the Square. We do topic specific kitchen workshops that encourages ladies in a group environment; and when they taste our healthy foods they are hooked. What makes me most proud is knowing, without some large company backing me with products, I am helping people change their lives and how they feel just by changing the foods they eat and feed their families. Empowering others to feed themselves real food will have a trickle effect. It will lower health conditions. It will keep people out of the doctors offices and off prescription drugs. That’s what lights my fire. Another passion I have is corporate speaking & department lunch-n-learns. I go on location and partner with corporations of all sizes to encourage healthier lifestyles in the work place that revolves around food choices & food education. Starting this company from nothing and offering my services to educate others on the power of real foods & not relying on a 3rd party company is what I’m most proud of. I do not sell a product. I sell knowledge in food. And that is powerful.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I am working on launching an online evergreen program. It will be a self-taught, go at your own pace online program to help people make these small shifts in their food choices so they may feel their best. This will be the first of many programs I plan to create over the next five years. The health and wellness industry is a multi-billion dollar business, so I know there’s a need. I have a rare niche. And I plan to share it to the masses; online and in person. Public speaking is something I desire to do more of, and would love to write a book in the next two years. Trends are happening all around us. But one thing is consistent…. we all have to eat.
Pricing:
- Private Kitchen demos (up to 3 adults) $100 an hour (2 hour minimum)
- Free initial consultation for 1-on-1 clients
- In person group kitchen demos @ Kitchenwares on the Square $40 a seat
- Grocery Store tour (at your local grocery store) $55; teaching you better ways to shop and how to read labels
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shelleycanhelp.com
- Phone: 972-838-6898
- Email: info@shelleycanhelp.com
- Instagram: @shelleycanhelp
- Facebook: facebook.com/shelleycanhelp
Image Credit:
Jennie Martell Photography
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